Mar 24, 2021

Tacoma Poet Laureate

The Tacoma Arts Commission has selected Lydia Valentine as Tacoma's 2021-2023 Poet Laureate. Over the next two years, Valentine will participate in and host public poetry readings, workshops and other community events to advance the literary arts in Tacoma. As a wrap-up to National Poetry Month, 2019-2021 Tacoma Poet Laureate Abby Murray and the Tacoma Arts Commission will host Pass the Torch, a virtual poetry event at which Valentine will officially be awarded the title. The free, public event will be held Thursday, April 22, from 6:00-7:15 pm on TV Tacoma, livestreamed on the city's Facebook page, and on Zoom. Valentine is a playwright and poet, director and dramaturg, editor and educator. Her first poetry collection, Brief Black Candles, was published in November 2020. Valentine is a faculty member of Northwest Indian College and Seattle Girls' School.

F5

Seattle-based F5 announced the appointment of two senior executives. Yvette Smith joins the company as senior vice president of customer success and business transformation, where she will lead a newly formed group combining both functions and multiple other teams into a single organization. Gail Coury, who joined F5 in 2018, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief information security officer. Coury will oversee the expansion of F5's cybersecurity organization with responsibility for F5's enterprise security, the security of the company's product and service offerings, and showcasing to customers and the industry the use of F5 security technologies. Smith comes to F5 from Microsoft where she most recently led the customer success programs for their commercial cloud business. Coury previously served as vice president and general manager of F5 Silverline, where she led product management, marketing, architecture, engineering, and customer success for F5's cloud-based Silverline managed service offerings. In their roles, both Smith and Coury report to Tom Fountain.

Clearwater Analytics

Clearwater Analytics, a SaaS solution for automated investment data aggregation, reconciliation, accounting, and reporting, announced that it has added financial services executive Kathleen Corbet to its board of directors. Corbet currently serves on the boards of MassMutual Financial Group, Waveny LifeCare Network, and BlackRock TCP Capital. She is the founder and principal of Cross Ridge Capital, a venture capital and management consulting firm for early-stage venture firms, government agencies, municipalities, and non-profit enterprises. Her career in financial services also includes serving as president of Standard & Poor's, CEO of the Alliance Fixed Income Division of AllianceBernstein, and executive vice president of Equitable Capital Management. Clearwater Analytics is headquartered in Boise.

Mar 23, 2021

Amazon Air

Amazon Air began operations at its new air gateway at Fairbanks International Airport. This is Amazon Air's second location in Alaska and its most northern gateway in the world. The location will include an onsite area to sort packages bound for their next destination and will be managed by an Amazon logistics partner, Naniq Global Logistics. The site will create more than 50 new jobs in the area.

Jensen Investment Management

Jensen Investment Management, a 100% employee-owned investment management firm founded in 1988, recently promoted Tyra Pratt and Jorge Rivas as portfolio managers to the Jensen Quality Value Investment Team. With this appointment, Pratt and Rivas will join portfolio managers Adam Calamar, Kurt Havnaer and Eric Schoenstein in overseeing the portfolio's $100+M in assets. Pratt joined Jensen in 2017 and is Jensen's first female portfolio manager. Rivas also joined Jensen in 2017. Jensen is headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Seattle Schools

The transition to a new interim superintendent for Seattle Public Schools will occur on May 1, 2021 when Brent Jones replaces Superintendent Denise Juneau. The transition will be made a couple months earlier than expected to help students, teachers, staff

and families as they resume more in-person learning and develop plans for the 2021-2022 school year. The search for a permanent superintendent will continue with extensive community engagement planned for fall 2021. The search is expected to conclude in the spring of 2022 with a final decision by the school board in April/May 2022.

Spaceflight

Seattle-based Spaceflight, a global launch services provider, announced it has been awarded a launch service contract for the integration and launch of NASA's LLITED mission. As a U.S. government direct procurement, Spaceflight is the prime contractor to NASA for the mission and the launch service is led by NASA's Kennedy Space Center Launch Services Program. The LLITED team includes scientists and engineers from The Aerospace Corporation, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and University of New Hampshire. In January, Spaceflight successfully deployed 15 spacecraft from its first next-gen OTV (Sherpa-FX) on the record-breaking SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-1 launch. Spaceflight is preparing several Sherpas for launch with both electric and chemical propulsion for missions later this year along with many traditional rideshare and dedicated missions, for a total of approximately 10 launches in 2021.

Mar 19, 2021

University Place

Smith

Former University Place Mayor Lorna Smith passed away on March 13. Smith spent more than 15 years in service to the University Place, both as an advocate for its incorporation and later as a city council member, mayor pro tem and mayor from 2000 to 2002. Smith also represented the city on several regional organizations, including the Pierce County Regional Council, Pierce County Cities and Towns, the State Route 16 Corridor Study and the Association of Washington Cities. Smith was a native of Eugene. She is survived by her husband of 43 years, Elmer Smith, three daughters, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Graveside services will be held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23 at New Tacoma Cemetery, 9212 Chambers Creek Road W., University Place.

Washington Wine

Washington's wine grape crop was smaller in 2020, but according to farmers and winemakers, quality is high. The Washington State Wine Commission's annual Grape Production Report, compiled with information provided by all Washington state wineries, showed 178,500 tons of wine grapes were harvested in 2020, an 11% decrease compared to 2019. All across the state, farmers reported smaller berry size and extended hang time in 2020, which is traditionally a recipe for high quality wines in Washington. Cabernet Sauvignon again rose to the top at 52,000 tons or 29% of the total. Chardonnay was second at 28,100 tons or 16% of the total. Riesling, Merlot and Syrah rounded out the top five. The Washington State Wine Commission (WSWC) represents every licensed winery and wine grape grower in Washington State. Funded almost entirely by the industry through assessments based on grape and wine sales, WSWC is a state government agency, established by the legislature in 1987.

Intrepid

Seattle-based Intrepid by VitalSource, a collaborative learning platform for global enterprises and training providers, announced a series of enhanced integrations and features that will allow administrators more ways to integrate other technologies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, already in use at an organization, into the Intrepid platform. The newest enhanced features include an interactive video functionality that increases both the opportunity to apply skills, get real-time feedback and increase engagement between both learners and course facilitators. VitalSource Technologies has a 20-plus-year history of powering digital learning globally.

Tacoma Car Museum

LeMay-America's Car Museum, located at 2702 East D Street in Tacoma will reopen to the public on April 2, 2021. It has been closed due to Covid-19 restrictions. The ACM collection consists of automotive artifacts and 250 automobiles spanning over 100 years of automotive history, plus approximately another 100 vehicles on exhibit loan from private collections. Unique to ACM are open storage galleries for collection vehicles not on active display, giving visitors the opportunity to see the majority of the collection. The museum also features school, youth and adult programs and offers rental space for various functions, including meetings and weddings. Additional information is available at http://www.americascarmuseum.org/.